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Back in 14th century Persia (Iran today), there was a famous poet named Hafiz. Not only was he a poet, but he was also a very well-respected man because of his wisdom. Although he lived 700 years ago, his poetry has once again become popular. This is my favorite Hafiz poem, and it reminds me of John the Baptist who is perishing in prison. It reminds me even more of Jesus, the liberator of everything that imprisons us.  It goes like …

There are a number of spiritual masters who see that there is clearly a spirituality for the first half of our lives and a spirituality for the second half of our lives. But it’s not necessarily chronological. In other words, just because you hit the midway point in your life (and we never know when that will be), doesn’t mean you automatically transition into a second half of life spirituality. I’ve met some young people who, because of suffering …

Here we are in Advent once again.  One of the characteristics of this season is that it invites us to look forward, to imagine a new world, and then to offer ourselves to God as co-creators of that new world.  Advent also gets us looking forward to the Parousia, the return of Jesus signaling the end of time. Jesus told his followers—and by extension, us—that the return of the Son of Man will happen, but the timeline is only known by …

As I mentioned over the last two weekends, as the liturgical year draws to an end the readings, themselves, were getting darker and heavier. They were pointing us to the end times. After much talk about the end times, Jesus faces, in today’s gospel, the end time of his human life as he hangs on the cross to die. We are told that during the three hours Jesus hung on the Cross, darkness covered all the land. Before the crucifixion, when …

In the homily last weekend, I mentioned that as the liturgical year draws to an end, the readings seem to get darker and heavier.  That’s certainly the case with today’s readings. Malachi, in that first reading, is speaking about evil doers being burned up while Jesus is mentioning earthquakes, famines, plagues, arrests, persecutions and family members betraying you.  Yet in the middle of all this darkness, Jesus says this will be your opportunity to testify.  Testify to what?  To light — a light …

As we inch closer to the end of the current church year (liturgical year) and will soon be entering a new church year, with the Season of Advent, you will notice the Scripture readings naturally speak about the end times. As you hear them, they may even come across as dark or heavy. 

I don’t think most of us give too much time or energy thinking about the end of all time, but we have all …

If you remember, last weekend’s gospel referred to a tax collector in the Temple whose sincere prayer to God garnered the praise of Jesus. Today’s gospel is about another tax collector, Zacchaeus, who likewise is praised by Jesus. What basically goes over our heads but was not lost on Jesus’ audience 2000 years ago, was the hatred Jews had for tax collectors. It’s important for us to know the depth of the hatred for tax collectors, if we are …

A little story about people who are self-righteous, like the Pharisee who prayed in the Temple. 

Jimmy, the local drunk, womanizer, and thief dies. His wife, a proper lady, wants a nice funeral for him to keep up appearances, if for nothing else. So, even though religion meant nothing to Jimmy, his wife, nevertheless, goes to visit the parish priest. “Please,” she begs the priest, “I know Jimmy was a scoundrel and never went to church, …

Jesus says, “If you know these things, then blessed are you who do them” (Jn. 13:17). In other words, if you know better, you must do better. Once you know, you cannot pretend you don’t know. When I consider the deplorable state of presiding and preaching that we find in most of our churches– not just here in our diocese, but almost everywhere I go—I wonder if these priests actually do know better. They should know better, but …

Contrary to popular belief, the Irish (and I can say this because I’m from Irish stock) do not have a monopoly on stubbornness, but what we have done is that we have polished it into an art form. Stubbornness is not a virtue, but persistence—like the type we find in all three Scripture readings today—can be. Stubbornness is often self-serving, but when we persist in promoting justice, truth, peace, fairness, equality, dignity, and beauty, we are acting like God. …